Ryan admits that he knew that Ashley had feelings for J.P. early on, but that just made him try harder to win Ashley for himself!

Ryan Park had a very hard time accepting that BacheloretteAshley Hebert sent him home. He felt he didn’t get the chance that he deserved, so he decided to fly to Fiji and try and win her back. But when that failed, Ryan had to come to terms with the fact that Ashley was in love with someone else. Now Ryan believes that Ashley is definitely engaged to rumored winner J.P. Rosenbaum, and Ryan’s jealous of that fact!

Ryan knew that Ashley had a connection with J.P. from the beginning. “The truth is, she started feeling for J.P. so early that it was like gosh, it was futile, but I wasn’t going to give up,” admits Ryan. “I just kept giving it my all and that’s where I learned so much and grew so much because of that.”

But with all his efforts, Ryan still lost to J.P. — even when he was still on the show. Watching Ashley fall for J.P. — “that was the hard part,” Ryan confesses. “That’s where I felt like I got a little bit of the short end of the stick because J.P. had two dates before I even had the one.”

“Our one-on-one date was at a temple — and I just felt, ‘Gosh, I got the short end of the stick,'” Ryan continues. “It’s not like I can jump her bones doing tai chi, let alone in a temple. So I wanted to give it more of a shot and not leave anything on the table.”

That’s why Ryan called host Chris Harrison and went to Fiji to confront Ashley about the goodbye. “I guess lucky for me I didn’t know the history of all these shows,” says Ryan. “But who cares, the past is the past. I felt that we had a lot in common and could maybe make it work, so I went for it.”

BFFs — like Ryan, could you tell early on that Ashley was falling for J.P.?

Be sure to catch ABC’s The Men Tell All special on July 31 — and check back here at HollywoodLife.com for our recap!